The whole of 2009 was stressful and traumatic and problematic for me and there was no way I could have flown and traveled anywhere that year. Before the year ended though, I just knew that i have to take a breather or I swear, I’ll go mad. So, end of January the following year is nanay’s birthday, that’s a good enough excuse to get the both of us some peace and relaxation, even if its just for a couple of days. When I told Nnylanna the plan, of course, she was as always, ready, willing and able to go, ANYTIME! Nanginginig pa with excitement :) A decision has to be made immediately… the DESTINATION. Nanay hasn’t traveled for at least 5 years so the first consideration is, it has to be somewhere near… a short flight if you may. Korea was our first choice ‘coz it was suppose to be included in our Japan-China tour so why not. unfortunately, January/February is still the height of winter therefore way too cold in Korea, so, scrap that. Thailand? Hmmm, for some reason, Nnylanna is always not too keen on the idea of going there. Macau? Well, I was there 2 years ago and I wanted to go somewhere new(so HongKong is also out). Macau is out for now, BUT will definitely take nanay there one of these days. Singapore? Not really excited to go there but at that time my mindset was, “just get me outta here for a few days”, so anywhere is really ok. So its final, Nnylanna, Piberg and Nanay will be in Singapore on January 31, 2010… wait a minute, somebody from another continent wants to tag along. Only, he wants us to move the date to February instead. Wait just a minute…oh ok brother dear, here’s another person badly in need of a vacay too, so, cancel January 2010 and its final, except for our eldest sibling, everybody's going to Singapore on February 2010.
Unfortunately for me, Nnylanna did not write a diary for this trip. So the chronological order of anything that I will write here is not guaranteed. Im only relying on the photo album that Nnylanna made for our mother dear, so hopefully, as I look at these pictures I would also remember some funny sidelights from this trip :D
Here’s the plan, my mother(Nanay), my brother Bong(who flew in from the US) and I will fly to Singapore from Manila ahead of my sister who is flying in from Melbourne. We will be met at the airport by our cousin Pogi(yeah, he is STILL pogi!) who is based in SG and my sister will make her own way to our hotel later that night. That was the plan, BUT FIRST, I have to tell you about our flight. I know I have often joked about this and told you people in my 3 blogspot accounts, about my eccentricities and OC’ness, and lately I would often refer to it as, a state of being “mental”. I would define it as behaviour “slightly”(*.~) different from those society considers normal. Welll… guess which parent shared this “outstanding trait” with me??? …hehe… Nanay is scared of flying. when she's on an airplane, she's thinking... the worst case scenario *grabe, pati tuloy ako nahahawa^^ * Well, nanay went to see her doctor before D-day and was told to take 2 of these tablets to calm her nerves before the flight. I gave her one and that’s it, its just a 3hr flight for chrissakes. We told Singapore Air when we checked in that we need a wheelchair for her and I didn’t know that there is a person that comes with the wheelchair to push her around the airport. ok fine, thank you. so, i was trying to fill up our departure card near the immigration when this korean guy approached me to ask for help in answering HIS card. in particular, he was pointing to the space that says "occupation". i know i have seen dozens of korean dramas but ahjusshi i only know very few korean words ^^ i did try to help him but when i said "it means what kind of work or business do you do?" and when his reaction was to only look at me and couldnt say anything, i knew i couldnt help him. thanks to my mother's "wheelchair guy" for rescuing me, he took him somewhere. Anyhoo, when we landed at Changi Airport, another wheelchair was waiting for her and they went ahead of us. And because Bong and I didn’t see her until we were almost out of the airport, she wasn’t too happy that we didn’t get a picture of her in the wheelchair being pushed by some airport guy^^
We booked 2 rooms at The Mandarin Orchard but since the other room is not on the same floor, we 3 girls decided to squeeze in one room and my brother was all by his lonesome in the other room. There are a lot of really cool hotels in this tiny city state and the 3 reasons why we picked this one is because of the following reasons… location, location, location ^^
Day 2… the day started with of course, a buffet breakfast at the hotel *ughhh, everything looks sumptious and yet I can barely eat, what else is new* We then joined a city tour. First stop is the Singapore Flyer… hmmm, never been a big fan of the Ferries Wheel and this is like a modern version of that. None of us 4 was interested to ride it, so in the end we just took pictures of ourselves in that area. Took a lot of pictures of nanay in the “mini” park underneath the Flyer *what she doesn’t know is that her photographic “modeling” days are just starting as I document this trip and I have a feeling the lady wouldn’t protest too much ^^ *
… next stop was The Marina where the iconic Merlion, the Esplanade, and The Marina Bay Sands(still under construction at that time) are located. Tell you honestly, im not sure if this place is indeed called The Marina, its just an assumption on my part ‘coz I forgot what it’s called OR I was not paying attention at that time ^^ I know there are more than enough evidence to the contrary BUT, I actually frown on the idea of posing for pictures at very popular tourist spots… hahahaaaa, really, I don’t know what happened to me that I now lost all sense of reservation and shyness when there’s a camera in front of me^^
…next destination is a Buddhist Temple. Again, I forgot or I am not paying attention so I don’t know its name. well, I did a bit of research and I think the name of this place is… Thian Hock Keng Temple, one of the oldest and most important Hookien Temple in SG.
…next stop is The National Orchid Garden. We all know that nanay’s love affair with orchids started from way back when… so we were excited to bring her there.
It’s a pretty warm day and from the souvenir shop at the Orchid Garden, my brother was thrilled with this solar powered baseball cap with a built-in functioning fan ^^
…by mid afternoon, we had an English High Tea at the Tiffin Room of The Raffles Hotel. Filipinos are not tea drinkers... its not part of our culture, so when my sister said that we were suppose to do this at the Raffles no less, I honestly don’t know what to make of it. from reading 18th-19th century English literature books, I have a bit of an idea what it is, I was thinking scones, and cakes and canapes’ and the likes, BUT I never expected this large buffet treat… hmmm, lovely indeed *in my fake british accent... haha* ^^
Later that night, we had dinner at one of those restaurants at The Marina and shared the table with a group of married couples from America, there were 4 or 5 pairs I think. We had to make our own way to this restaurant because my sister messed up the pick up time at our hotel so we had to take the taxi.
Since our schedule for day 2 was pretty hectic, we decided not to take a set tour the next day. Our cousin Pogi, his wife Kristine and their children JA and KC invited us for dinner for day 3 so that’s just about the only set plan for that day. Welll… free time means shopping time as far as Nnylanna is concerned. Before that, we walked along Orchard Road and had lunch in a Korean restaurant somewhere in Wisma Atria(?).
there was this really nice and classy looking shopping mall complex called Ngee Ann City which is just a few meters away from our hotel, so we had to check it out. Hmmm, it houses some expensive looking shops and unless im mistaken, Takashimaya is one of those shops. I remember Takashimaya ‘coz that’s where we bought a couple of cardigans for my sister and my mother. I didn’t get anything for myself even if my very generous sister says she’ll buy it for me ‘coz honestly, unless im absolutely in love with it, im not gonna buy anything THAT expensive, even if somebody else is paying for it!
Our cousin and his family took us to a typical street dining in SG. I’ve seen it a couple of times in Channel NewsAsia and im excited to try it. We just walked from our hotel to that place so im assuming that it is still in Orchard Road. Great food and excellent company, what more can we ask for, we had a lovely time… JA and KC were adorably cute too. Thanks, Pogs and Tin ^^
Day 4 is spent in Sentosa. It is a resort island not too far from the mainland. I didn’t even realize it was an island until I’ve read it in one of the brochures just recently. There are several attractions like the Universal Studios, the Butterfly Park, Desperados, Underwater World, the Tiger Sky Tower and a lot more. With the facilities now in operation, I could tell that a huge investment was made by the government to attract tourists to this part of the world. I just hope they succeed considering the competition in this region. I don’t think they can make money with a population of a little over 5 million locals and I don’t know how many million migrants/expats, more than 100 thousand of them Filipino IT professionals. Without further ado, here’s Sentosa, SG…
***The Butterfly Park
***Desperados
***Underwater World
***Tiger Sky Tower
We had some free time in the afternoon so I’ll let you take a guess how we spent it… you guessed it right… shopping! Where? In a market famous among the locals and tourists too… Bugis. we bought all sorts of goodies for friends and relatives and some stuff for ourselves too… and because im such a cheapskate, I only got 2 pairs of shoes and an SG tees for moi. Im sooo happy with the shoes, i still wear them to this day ^^
I thought, I wouldn’t have to write about our last day ‘coz that’s when we go home. What could possibly happen that would warrant an extra entry to this blog? Nanay, Bong and I will take a flight back to Manila and Nnylanna to Melbourne, that was the plan. Anyway, before I proceed with this story, let me just share with you an insight about a particular personal pet peeve. Im always ranting and complaining about how difficult for us citizens from a third world country to travel because of visa requirements(i wrote about it in my "PIBERG" blogspot account if youre interested) and I am green with envy at my sister, who’s an Australian citizen, and my brother who’s an American citizen, because they don’t have to worry about such things. They just have to buy a ticket and they can practically go anywhere in the world they wish to. SO, why am I even bellyaching about THAT now, you may ask? well, well, well… when we got to the airport and checked in our luggage at the Singapore Airlines counter, my mother and I went first and it was a breeze, no problems for the citizens from the third world Philippines. Nanay, Nnylanna(whose flight was an hour or so after us) and myself found a seat to wait for Bong. Several minutes have passed and my brother is still in the Singapore Airlines counter, hmmm, what could be holding him up? Nnylanna approached him and true enough, there is trouble. The flight itinerary that my brother printed out and is presenting to the counter only goes as far as his flight back to Manila from SG and the airline was looking for the flight that would take him back to his final destination which is the USA. In other words, Singapore Airlines wouldn’t let my American brother board our intended flight! Wahahahaha… sorry, I couldn’t help it… I could laugh about it now but at that time, it was a serious problem. The solution is actually very simple… find a computer, go online to his email account and print out his complete flight itinerary. Simple. Well, not so simple. For some reason, it was sooo hard to open emails at that time… it could be the internet connection at the airport or internet traffic that is to blame. I could see Nnylanna and Bong going this way and that way several times... my brother sweating, visibly harassed and exasperated by the situation… nanay and I were getting worried too that Bong would miss our flight. Ugh, when they did finally succeeded in opening his email account, the next problem was where to print it. again, both of them were going this way and that way, until finally, success! They were able to print ‘em at a lowly laundry shop at the airport. Woohoo, a few more minutes and bye bye brother dear. Really, the other passengers were already on the plane when we got there. Phew, that was close :p
here's the gang... from Left to Right...my Australian sister, Pinoys ->Piberg & Nanay, and my American brother :DDD
